Zaun: 'He's Still John Smoltz'

Say this for the young and talented, and recently scuffling, Baltimore Orioles. They respect the game.

And that lesson has been passed down from their manager Dave Trembley and their veteran players like Gregg Zaun.

That came in handy Sunday when they showed respect, but not fear, when facing one of the best pitchers of the generation.

Red Sox righty John Smoltz came into the game with a 1-3 record and a 6.31 ERA in five starts.

Nick Markakis led the way with two hits, a sacrifice fly, three RBI and a rope of a home run to right field as the Orioles beat the Red Sox, 6-2, and beat up on Smoltz.

“Just making him get the ball over the plate,” Markakis said of the approach to the 42-year-old veteran. “He doesn’t leave much over the plate. He hits his spots well. He’s one of the better pitchers out there in the game of all time. To come out here and to get on him early and get his pitch count up, we got some big hits.

“We can feed off this and go home.”

Then there’s veteran catcher Gregg Zaun. He’s been around the block, and he’s faced John Smoltz on numerous occasions.

Despite Smoltz getting lit up for nine hits and six earned runs, Zaun showed respect afterward.

“He’s still John Smoltz,” Zaun said. “He doesn’t throw as hard as he used to but he still has the ability to throw several pitches in the strike zone and to both sides of the strike zone and he knows how to pitch. Fortunately, for us we got pitches to hit early in the at-bats and we have an aggressive offensive team. When people make mistakes early in the count, most of our guys are ready to hit it.”

The Orioles, who snapped an 11-game skid at Fenway, were more than ready to hit in the third inning when they laced three hits on four Smoltz pitches.

“Well, you’re facing a guy that’s going into the Hall of Fame in Smoltz,” said O’s skipper Dave Trembley. “You’ve got a good slider. He’s going to expand the strike zone with two strikes. You can see that he’s got a lot of experience. He’s trying to get young guys to chase up the ladder and out of the zone. He got a couple guys doing that. But for the most part, that didn’t happen. Our guys have shown improvement.

They’ll get another chance on Friday at Camden Yards in Baltimore when the two teams meet again on trade deadline day.